S4 SE engine mods

[DavidP]

Thanks for that Rohan.

[Andy8421]

I dont know of specific issues with the 123 distributor brand, its just a general concern about packing power electronics into a small distributor body with limited cooling and a lot of heat and vibration.

Its a good point (no pun intended), but properly designed equipment should be fine. Your modern car will have a significant amount of transducers, actuators and control electronics in the engine bay and bolted to the engine. With a few exceptions, the reliability of these parts is excellent. Low volume, aftermarket add-ons don't have the benefit of OEM design and production resources, and can be a problem for the reasons Rohan mentions.

I purchased a 123 distributor after having done research on the web regarding reliability. As far as I could see, there had been very few reports of problems due to electronic failure, although there were a number of posts about the quality of the clips used to hold the distributor cap on. I haven't fitted the distributor yet, but will report back.

FWIW I purchased the bluetooth activated system as it allowed a PIN code to be set to disable the distributor as a security feature. Unless the bad guy had a spare distributor (or a tow truck) the car was going nowhere.

[mbell]

I run a 123 dizzy. I believe it to be a well designed product, haven't had any issues and as the design is not specific to the Elan/Twincam engine it quite a widely tested solution.

That doesn't mean it can't or won't fail but that is true for any of the possible ignition system people use. There plenty of issues with replacement part quality and failures for all the ignition systems. So it comes down to personal choice on what is important for you. Some people use original points and condensers, some people go to full mapped wasted spark setups.

I think the main difference is that if 123 fails you are likely stranded with none running car until your can fit a replacement dizzy. With points you stand a much better chance of being able to limp the car somewhere.